Opinions on RPI student death still divide detective bureau

TROY – Four-months after an RPI student was found dead with a gunshot wound and a handgun near his body, Troy police detectives are still split over whether the case is a homicide.

Some investigators are convinced John F. Curry, 21, was murdered and a pathologist is leaning toward foul play, according to a Police Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Rensselaer County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Sikirica believes the case a homicide but has yet to make a formal ruling, the official said.

”There is much debate in the department over this case,” the source said. ”This is an odd case for us because everyone’s taking sides and have strong opinions of what happened.”

Sikirica did not immediately return calls for comment.

Since they found Curry facedown on the floor of his Fifth Avenue apartment on Dec. 16, detectives have been split over his cause of death. Some detectives who have examined the evidence say it points toward suicide.

But the official said recent tests of evidence at the State Police lab did not provide conclusive evidence of that.
Curry’s door was unlocked, police said, but at first they couldn’t open it all the way because he fell against the door. They found a handgun near the body and an open wallet nearby. Curry’s right hand held an open cell phone.

He was dressed in outdoor clothes and wore a backpack, authorities have said, but they have not been able to determine whether Curry was about to leave the apartment where he lived alone or had just come home.

The student’s mother Grace Lynch Curry old the Times Union in the days following her son’s death that she did not believe he committed suicide.

Lynch Curry of northern New Jersey said she had seen her son over Thanksgiving. Her daughter was with him the Sunday before his death and the mother and son also spoke that day.

“He was in a good mood,” Curry’s mother said. “He had just left his sister, and we were just talking about plans for the holidays.”